A recent report from Bank of America said that 2026 will be “another challenging” year for U.S. agriculture, facing many of the same headwinds as 2025. The report, titled, “Anticipating opportunities in real assets,” noted, however, that despite the challenges, farmland values have remained resilient, with regional variations in relative strength and weakness.
“Agricultural commodity markets continue to show excess supply and, although uncertainty about trade and interest rates persists, farmland markets are currently impacted less by these factors than they were a year ago,” BofA’s report noted. “Strong domestic and global production have continued to raise supplies for key agricultural commodities in the face of record demand. This supply condition continues to put downward pressure on commodity prices, making it difficult for farmers to improve revenue and resulting in another term of narrow operating margins as elevated input costs and interest rates hold in place.”
According to BofA, one of the primary factors supporting land values has been the continuing limited inventory available over the last two years as agricultural commodity price increases have slowed.
“This stabilization, coupled with the general uncertainties in the 2025 market, caused potential sellers to remain on the sidelines waiting for clarity on both income statements for farm operations and price discovery in the land markets,” analysts said, adding that “the investment characteristics of farmland as a tangible inflation-resistant asset continue to attract investors seeking a safe haven and relatively stable income returns from farmland.”
The report goes into more detail on corn and livestock markets, as well as the effect of recent government support in the form of the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Overall, looking forward, the report predicts that marginal profitability in the row crop space will persistently pressure land prices and likely lead to more restructuring of existing debts as signs of financial stress continue to emerge.
“Although farmland is not a sector with a tremendous amount of leverage, there will be some repricing of agricultural debt that may lead to opportunistic acquisitions in certain farmland markets,” analysts said. “Farmland investments will, over the long term, continue to offer a credible and actionable pathway for investors seeking stability, diversification and positive impact. In an ever-changing economic landscape, farmland remains a resilient and reliable investment option for achieving growth and stability in a well-balanced portfolio.”
